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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Yes, that's right!!! Our dossier should arrive in Oregon by 10:30 a.m. today! I will be tracking it, for sure!! And I have already asked our case manager to let me know when it arrives! It was such a relief to mail it off, but I have to admit, I felt kind of nervous! I know it sounds silly, but we have worked SO HARD for 4 months on all this paperwork. I didn't really like the feeling of leaving it at FedEx alone! Ha! I will feel much better when I know it has arrived safe and sound at the AGCI office!

Okay, so you know I always have a story about everything, and this week is no exception! Here is the story of mailing the dossier...

Well, Tuesday morning dawned bright and early with my dryer blowing up! I had just started a load of clothes, and I heard two loud explosions. I was scared to even look because I thought it might be on fire! But thankfully, it wasn't! There is a repairman that is supposed to be coming today to fix it!

Then, I headed to the doctor's office with Caty, who was diagnosed with impetigo for the second time in a month! She is going to be okay, but is taking a very strong antibiotic three times a day! Poor baby!

That afternoon, I went to pick up the final draft of our home study from our social worker!! I was just so EXCITED to have that in hand, because that was the very last thing we had been waiting on for over a month! Praise God!!! So, I went to make 3 copies of it, and then went home to put it all together!

Here they are...the original DOSSIER and 3 copies of it!! All complete and ready to go!!! (I just smiled so big while typing those words!)

And you know this brings the biggest smile of all! All the checkmarks are in place!! I so LOVE a completed checklist! Especially one that is getting us a huge step closer to our baby girl!!

But of course, our dossier was not complete without the pink and brown raffia to make it look all CUTE and GIRLY!! :)

Well, Tuesday night, I took the girls and a friend to see our cousin cheer at her 9th grade football game. It was so much fun, but we were out kind of late. I really wanted our whole family to pray over our dossier together before we mailed it, but Carson was already asleep when we got home. So, we had to wait until yesterday (Wednesday) morning to do that!

Early Wednesday morning, before school we all put our hands on the dossier to say a prayer for it to get there safely! And that God would use it to align us perfectly with our precious Caroline Faith!!

Well, this is where the fun part begins! I went to teach school that morning with the dossier in my car, to be mailed after school. The only problem was that I started feeling really sick to my stomach that morning...and ended up having a really bad stomach bug! Yuck! But, God was so gracious to give me the strength to finish up teaching and still make it by Fed Ex to mail the dossier!

Here it is...all boxed up and ready to be overnighted to AGCI in Oregon!!

And here I am with my "dossier baby"!! One more last picture before I had to leave it there! I really think my smile would have been even bigger, had I not been feeling so badly! The FedEx girl was so sweet to take pictures for me! She knows me well from being in there so much lately!

So, then I went home, got into my pajamas and unfortunately, just got sicker and sicker. Jody had to come home from work after I finally passed out from being so sick and weak! So, not fun!! But today, I am already feeling a million times better! Praise God! And I just think that it's a miracle from Him, that despite being so sick, He still gave me the strength to get the dossier in the mail!!

I just know that Wednesday, Septemeber 15, 2010 was the day that HE had ordained from the beginning of time, to be the day that our dossier was complete and in the mail! Isn't that so amazing to think about?! Through all the times of hard work, tears, frustration, and impatience along this paperwork process, we had to remember that He is in control! And we had to trust that His timing is perfect, and yesterday I got to see how beautifully it all came together!

I called my Mom today to tell her all that had happened over the past few days. You know what she said? She said that yesterday, she just felt like God was prompting her to get down on her knees and pray that we would be able to get our dossier mailed in!! And she did! She had no idea that I was sick or anything! I am praising God today for His goodness and faithfulness! He always protects and provides for His children!

Well, I had always wanted to celebrate the day we mailed in our dossier with one of our favorites...Mexican food! But, obviously, last night I could not eat anything, much less Mexican food. But Jody promised that we could go out to celebrate next week! So, I will take pictures of our DOSSIER CELEBRATION NIGHT...coming soon!!!

*UPDATE!* Just got a call from our case manager at AGCI...the dossier has arrived safe and sound!! She will be reviewing it tomorrow!! And she said that she appreciated the pink and brown ribbon!! :)

"For the Lord you God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your JOY will be COMPLETE!" Deuteronomy 16:15

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Such a wonderful feeling! So glad to hear that you are feeling better!Enjoy the weightless feeling of no paperwork (for now, anyway)! I SO can't wait to see Caroline Faith's sweet little face! Soon. One day soon. God bless your family!

HOOOOOOORRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!I'm so excited for you Alison! I kept checking your blog yesterday to see. What a great feeling especially now that you are feeling better. I hope that they will love it and it will be perfect so you can get on the waitlist asap!!:-)

I am so excited for your family. That was the exact same title as my post when we sent our dossier in. A happy day indeed. We also prayed over ours. God is lining you up for your sweet Caroline Faith. LOVE IT!Blessings,Amy

WaaaaaaHoooooo!! I am SOOOOO excited for you!! I know you are so glad to have that finished. I will be looking forward to hearing your number really soon. I wonder how close we are going to be on the list?!?! :))))) So glad that we are going thru this at the same time. It makes it that much more fun!!!!!

Yay!!! Congratualations! I can't wait to have a post saying our dossier is complete! We are praying for your family. Gotta love new blog friends who know what all we are going through to compile this package :)

That's so exciting!! I'll be praying that you don't have to have ANY corrections AT ALL and that tomorrow brings you your very first number!!:) You have to post it as soon as you hear - I can't wait!:P

Wow, you are the third person this week that I have heard this happy news from, all going through difference agencies!!! GOd is working! And as I read all of that, especially about you feeling sick mostly just on that day, it was like Satan was definitely trying to keep you from turning it in. HOW WONDERFUL you were able to do it!!!! I am so excited for your family! (and I love the little nailpolished hands praying!) ;)

I too remember that great day! Oh, the paperwork seemed like SUCH hard work, but I'll warn you---waiting is hard work too! And it's so amazing to me, the wait list numbers have almost tripled since we were placed on the list for an older girl. I'm sure your case manager loved the bows! I was very fortunate to live 30 minutes from AGCI so I was able to hand-carry the precious papers in! Blessings~

what a wonderful day! Finishing that dossier is such a wonderful feeling! It is surreal how it all has to fall together to get the baby that God has in store for your family! Hoping to see a number tomorrow!

Congratulations! It felt so good to be finished with that! Sorry to hear that you were sick. Hope you are well by now. I hope your wait will not be too long. We waited about 6 months for our referral.

Thanks for the comment you left on my blog. Don't stress too much about having to update our homestudy. We were able to get most of it done this week. You might not have to do anything - it might be the state law that determines when the documents "expire."

YAY!! So happy for you!! :) In our state we can't even submit the I-600 A until our homestudy is complete and we just got that last week sooo we still have a couple months to submit that and wait for clearance. I wish we could have done it while we were waiting for the homestudy! Anyway, so happy for your family!! :)

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!! SO AWESOME!!! glad you are feeling better... GOD IS GOOD and HIS timing prevails! After the dryer AND being sick - the dossier is THERE! yay! And i have to tell you... even though my bracelet says Camp and Nash on it, I think about your Caroline Faith everytime I wear it - and pray for y'all!MK

Congrats - I am so excited for you that it is finally completed. I know how the paper pregnancy goes and it makes you sick itself...hope you are feeling better too & no other family members got it!! Prayers!!

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I am a full-time mom to four precious children, and have been married for 15 years to my wonderful, campus pastor, husband-Jody.
I love my family, baking, working out, reading, Ole Miss sports, Mexican food, our church, walking, and having friends over.
Most of all, I love my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our family's motto is "Love God, Love Others", and we are trying to live that out! We are so thankful that the Lord has brought our baby girl home from Ethiopia!